NEWAYGO COUNTY — The Fremont-area woman who was shot to death Sunday, allegedly by her ex-husband, had two personal protection orders against the man in the past eight years — one of which she asked to terminate just months before her death.

Heather Bower, 33, was fatally shot at 6621 W. 100th in Newaygo County’s Bridgeton Township Sunday evening. Her ex-husband, Wesley Bower, 39, was arraigned Monday in 78th District Court in Newaygo on charges of open murder and using a firearm to commit a felony.

Court records portray a stormy relationship in which Heather Bower appeared to try to simultaneously protect her children while preserving some relationship between them and their father.

Heather Bower petitioned the 27th Circuit Court for a personal protection order, known as a PPO, on Dec. 16, 2009, saying she had taken the children and gone into hiding after her husband excessively spanked their 11-year-old son on Dec. 12. She said it was the “last straw from many incidents throughout the many years.”

She said that two days after the spanking incident he came looking for her at the Fremont Walmart where she worked. He accused her boss of lying when she said Heather Bower had called in sick, and was asked to leave the store twice before employees threatened to call police, Heather Bower said in her petition for the PPO.

Heather Bower said she had to take unpaid leave from work and keep her children home from school because she was afraid her husband would find them.

His “past history shows violence and anger, and we are scared of him,” she wrote in the petition. “He may follow me home or where we are hiding. I don’t know what would happen if he did.

“We can’t live walking on eggshells anymore. Little things set him off, and the big things are only gonna be worse.”

Circuit Court Judge Graydon Dimkoff’s notes in the file said the couple’s son and daughter had reported their father was mentally abusive. Heather Bower alleged he was being investigated by Children’s Protective Services. Wesley Bower responded that she was lying. Officials from Children’s Protective Services refused comment on the case, when called by The Chronicle Wednesday.

Wesley Bower

The protection order was issued, and would have remained in effect until Dec. 16, 2010. It went through a series of modifications, though, over the next few months, before Heather Bower asked the court to end it.

Heather Bower’s brother, Ron Couts, said Wesley Bower tried to control the kids and “mess with their heads,” but his sister tried to find a way that he could be in their lives.

“I know she kept trying to make it work with him for the kids,” he said.

On Dec. 30, the protection order was modified to forbid Wesley Bower from contacting the couple’s children, unless a court ruled to allow some visits. The changes also allowed him to buy or possess a firearm.

It was modified again Jan. 25, to allow him to see the children at professional counseling sessions.

Heather Bower asked the court to terminate the personal protection order March 23.

“The respondent and I cannot raise our children if we cannot communicate,” she wrote in her petition. “We are not in any danger to worry about.”

A judge denied her request, but most provisions of the order were deleted, so Wesley Bower was forbidden only to attack her or threaten to injure her.

The 2009 PPO was not the first time the Bowers’ disputes landed in court.

They married in 1999 and divorced in 2002. The year they split, the Bowers asked for PPOs against each other.

Wesley Bower had taken their 3-year-old son to his house after the Fremont Memorial Day parade May 27, 2002. He claimed he had permission; Heather Bower said she had only allowed him to take the boy to watch the parade in another spot, not to leave with him.

Wesley Bower said she came into the house, demanding her son back, and punched him. He said he locked her out, but she unlocked the door and took her son back.

Heather Bower told a different story. She said she arrived to find the doors already locked, let herself in and told her son it was time to leave. She said Wesley refused to give him up, and the boy started crying. She then alleged that Wesley Bower shoved her into the door and off the porch, with the children watching. She said Wesley Bower eventually let her take the children.

She petitioned the court for a PPO the next day; Wesley Bower responded with his own request two days later. Heather Bower’s request was denied because the judge could not determine what had happened; Wesley Bower’s request was dismissed for a lack of action.

Heather Bower’s grandfather, Bo Couts of Auburn, Calif., said they reconciled at some point after the 2002 dispute, though they never remarried, and went to California together to seek work about two years ago. Heather found work, he said, but Wesley didn’t, and they returned to Michigan in November 2009.

Sometime after their return, Wesley Bower wanted to take custody of the children, Couts said. He said that argument led to Sunday’s fatal shooting, with the children in the house.